It’s Monday, Oct. 30, 2023.
Happy Monday, Boulder. How about that snow, huh? Awfully pleasant.
Today, we’ve got a foodie news day — the best kind of news day. I’ve got a story about Boulder County Farmers Markets and its Winter Market Share. If you’re a fan of eating local food and supporting local farmers, there’s now an option to continue that enthusiasm into the winter. Until Nov. 11, you can get eight weeks of local produce and packaged goods for 400 bucks. Maybe some onions, maybe some coffee, it’s bound to be a delicious surprise.
Also, Jessica Mordacq has a story about the purple food truck that serves folks espresso drinks around Boulder. Alex Maloof left Whole Foods after 17 years to pursue his dream of serving people coffee for a living. Cashing out his 401(k), he bought a food truck with the hope of specializing in mocha drinks. But miscommunication made for a tough start. After working with city staff to develop a policy to accommodate Cafe Alejandro, the city is now promoting its Valmont Park Community Food Truck Days to try and find other mobile food vendors to join Maloof in the parking lot.
Enjoy the day. I’ll see you Wednesday.
— Tim, reporter
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Featured stories
‘A surprise every week’: Boulder County Farmers Markets opens sign-ups for its Winter Market Share
Similar to a CSA program but from a variety of farms instead of one, participants will get a mix of local food each week from Nov. 29 through the end of January. Continue reading…
Cafe Alejandro: The story of the purple espresso truck at Boulder’s Valmont City Park
Miscommunication and a lack of clear food truck policies initially delayed the launch of Alex Maloof’s mocha truck. Now that it’s operational, the city is seeking licensed food vendors to join its new Valmont Park food truck program so Maloof and others can continue serving. Continue reading…
ICYMI — Boulder 2023 Voter Guide: Election Day is Nov. 7. Here’s what you need to know
Discover what’s at stake on Nov. 7, and meet the candidates and where they stand on the issues Boulderites care most about. Continue reading…
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In other news
Warming up
After a chilly weekend, things should be heating up through the week — at least if you’re generous with your definition of heating. Sunny and 40s will cover today and tomorrow, with later days rising into the 60s.
Covid art pieces plopping down across the county
Boulder County Public Health is partnering with local partners to bring art installations across the county to help remember the “uncertainty, loss and hope of residents’ Covid-19 experiences.” The art pieces, the county says, will also highlight the role of vaccines in the recovery from the pandemic. A total of six pieces will be installed over the coming months, with some already in place. Based on oral histories of residents’ pandemic experiences, each installation will feature actual voices.
In Nederland, the art sits in the Fairy Garden located between the intersection of East Street and East Second Street and the western shore of Barker Reservoir. Longmont was the first to get its art, at the Firehouse Art Center. Lafayette’s is at 186-189 N Public Road. Lyons’ and Boulder’s are soon to come.
“The campaign centers around real voices from our communities and is the result of focus groups with residents from across Boulder County,” says Dr. Indira Gujral, deputy director. “This led to the creation of a design team that included local government representatives and a diverse mix of residents consisting of, among others, a CU professor, a bluegrass musician, an opera singer and an immigration activist who worked collaboratively to shape the project.”
CO 119 rumble project starts Nov. 1
The first step in a long process to make CO 119 safer begins on Nov. 1. Rumble strips that will run from Hover Street in Longmont to Foothills Parkway in Boulder will take a couple days to complete and commuters should be ready for delays on Nov. 2 and 3. Work will be concentrated between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. as those are slow traffic times. Bikes should avoid the road entirely as the shoulder will be blocked. Signs to hopefully encourage safe driving and biking will then be installed on Nov. 13-16.
These small fixes are only a hint of what’s to come on the busy throughway. With the road expected to see a 25% increase in traffic by 2040 from what it gets today, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Regional Transportation District are working to offset some increasing emissions and crashes. A bike path separate from the road that will run in the median of the highway is one of the highlights for cyclist safety — complete with six underpasses and pump stations. But on the road there will be improved signal timing and the rethinking of problematic intersections for drivers, including the one at Hover Street in Longmont and the CO 52 intersection.
Co 119 improvements took on new urgency after a promising local cyclist, Magnus White, was hit by a car while riding on the road this past summer and tragically killed near the intersection with 63rd Street. Michael White, Magnus’s father, said that the road must become safer “so no other family will have to experience the total and utter devastation we have faced, and will live with the rest of our lives.”
Participate in the Community Wildfire Protection Plan
This Thursday, Nov. 2 from 5-6 p.m., Boulderites will have the chance to learn about what the city is thinking about prioritizing in terms of wildfire risk mitigation. With several new county taxes and a new city tax providing added money to the effort, it’s important to identify the top wildfire risks to the city, as the money pot has a bottom.
City staff and wildfire experts will provide short presentations, with the majority of the time allotted to hearing feedback from you. If you want to attend the webinar, the city requests that you register beforehand.
The city has a survey for those who already know the input they’d like to provide on the protection plan. Residents can let the city know what they want prioritized in terms of wildfire mitigation, but also what they’re most concerned about — like their home not being properly hardened — so the city can determine the best way to spend taxpayer dollars.
Cut your own Christmas Tree
If you don’t like pre-cut Christmas trees that sit, clustered and sad, on the asphalt outside grocery and hardware stores, Boulder County is offering you a chance to cull your own right from the landscape. One hundred Boulderites will get the chance to cut their own Lodgepole Pine from the Reynolds Ranch Open Space on Magnolia Road near Nederland. The days for cutting will be Saturday, Dec. 2 and Sunday, Dec. 3. Not only do residents get a tree to dress in decorations, but the forest will get slightly thinned — theoretically reducing its risk of intense wildfire.
Those interested must enter their names by Nov. 12. It’s $20 to enter the drawing.
Slash burning planned
As autumn leads into winter, piles of slash — vegetative waste created by forest-thinning projects — will be burned when weather permits. The county cites Reynolds Ranch, Caribou Ranch, Mud Lake (Sherwood Gulch) and Hall Ranch as properties on the docket for burns. So if you see sparse flames in the area at some point, there’s a good chance they were planned.
The point of these burns is to do away with the refuse of thinning projects. If you thin out trees to prevent intense wildfires but just leave the trees on the ground where you toppled them, you’re not removing fuel from the landscape; you’re just turning it horizontal from vertical. Slash pile burns do away with the vegetative matter that was previously cleared but piled to await the perfect weather to burn. And when there’s snow on the ground and no wind, that’s a pretty great time to burn a pile of wood.
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